Page 55 - The Mercy of Believers
P. 55

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                 EXEMPLARY VALUES OF BELIEVERS REFLECTING THEIR MERCY

             he will certainly be pleased with the outcome in the here-
             after, and that this is the best sign of one's compassion.
                 In the above verse, Allah informs us that the best as-
             sistance a believer can offer is in promoting goodness and
             piety. Again, we learn from the Qur'an what goodness is:

                 It is not righteousness to turn your faces to the East
                 or to the West. Rather, those with true righteousness
                 are those who believe in Allah and the Last Day, the
                 Angels, the Book and the Prophets, and who, despite
                 their love for it, give away their wealth to their rela-
                 tives and to orphans and the very poor, and to trav-
                 ellers and beggars and to set slaves free, and who
                 establish prayer and pay welfare tax; those who ho-
                 nour their contracts when they make them, and are
                 steadfast in poverty and illness and in battle. Those
                 are the people who are true. They are the people
                 who do their duty. (Surat al-Baqara: 177)
                 As is evident, true goodness plainly differs from the
             sense of goodness prevalent in societies in which the val-
             ues of religion do not prevail. People, who are distant
             from Qur'anic morality, perceive goodness as a favour
             done when one feels like it. This is an attitude occasion-
             ally adopted. Often this form of goodness is limited to not
             side-stepping beggars and to giving in charity, feeding
             stray dogs or giving one's seat to an elderly person in a
             crowded bus. However, all these favours are done only
             when, they do not harm one's interests.
                 Contrary to this picture, however, the kind of good-
             ness described in the Qur'an is the kind of morality and
             worship practised right throughout one's life, and not
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